Five Minute Friday - Grace

If you had told me nine months ago when I first ventured into this Five Minute Friday escapade how delightfuly addicting it would be I’m not sure I would have believed you. If you had told me I would meet and become friends with some amazing women who I would never know except through the view of my laptop screen, I would have laughed and brushed your idea aside. If you had told me that those friendships would deepen and grow; that some of them would become as important as my real life relationships; that in nine months I’d be sitting across the table from a Five Minute Friday friend in my kitchen? Well, we’d have probably not been talking anymore.

But God is amazing and has His own plans that are far larger than mine. I have made tremendous friends through this wonderful online community and am thrilled to be sharing my kitchen table with one of those friends tonight. Can I tell you that this doesn’t feel like meeting someone for the first time? I feel like I’m saying hello to someone I’ve known for a while. Having Karrilee here tonight makes this kitchen into a sacred, shared space. I’m so blessed. This is the joy of this community at its best – finding and making friends that will become a real part of our lives – because of our shared faith. Because of His love.

Because no matter where we are; no matter what distance separates some or all of us, this is a fellowship of friends that gather here to write into the wee hours of the morning; then reading each others words and sharing encouragement as we go. Yes, this community opens wide and invites you in to share. Come and visit and read. You will be blessed.

This Week: Grace

Go

This word tonight hits me hard. I’ve been writing so deep into the desert journey and so much of that space is intertwined with grace. Grace given and grace received. Lessons learned. Another step grown.

And yet, there are times – even now – when I feel like I’ve not learned a thing. When the edges around me that should have been softened and smoothed; rubbed to a finished shine by these experiences and glowing with grace – they’re still as hard and sharp as ever.

Just tonight, stepping to the door – the door that wasn’t supposed to be knocked on or had its bell rung because, hello, the light’s off – opening the door to small voices calling “Halloween” instead of “trick or treat” and I have a flash of irritation and annoyance. Why are you here? Why don’t you know the code that says don’t come when the light is off. Why ….

Why am I sitting here with a large bowl of candy if I didn’t think anyone was going to come by? Why can’t I smile kindly into small faces that are reveling in the pure joy of wandering about for candy and just give a kind greeting back? Without feeling that pang of exasperation. It’s such a small thing.

And it’s the small things that undo me. How many times to I stumble through my day tripping over opportunities for grace to abound and instead fall flat with impatience or anger. I am more ungraceful in my living than I would like to be and I am not proud of it.

My heart’s desire is to be an extension of the grace that was given freely to me – because so much has been given. I want to live my life in the grace by which we stand. Rejoicing and hoping and giving thanks in Him – the giver of all grace.

Stop

How to Join
Want to know about Lisa Jo Baker, how Five Minute Friday got started, and how to participate? All the details are here. No editing or second guessing. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community.

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